Annotating documents on a mobile device

ABSTRACT

A computing device displays electronic content associated with a plurality of annotations each corresponding to a respective portion of the electronic content. A first annotation, which includes one or more comments associated with a first portion of the electronic content, is displayed. While the first annotation is displayed, an input to display a second annotation is received. The second annotation is associated with a second portion of the electronic content, and includes one or more comments associated with the second portion. Responsive to receiving the input, the second portion of the electronic content and the one or more comments associated with the second portion are displayed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/203,359, filed Aug. 10, 2015, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates generally to annotating electronic content, andin particular to integrating content viewing and annotation within asingle user interface.

Document collaboration tools are becoming a popular resource for userscollaborating on production or editing of electronic content. Whencollaborating on a document, users often communicate their suggestionsor opinions for the document to other users by directly annotating thedocument or by providing comments via a separate communication channel,such as email. Generally, document collaboration tools enable users tocreate static annotations of documents. That is, a user can add text,images, or other annotations into the document file that can bedistributed to other users, but the other users cannot respond to theannotation without modifying the annotation or adding another annotationto the document. Accordingly, users of the document collaboration toolsmay use a separate communication channel to discuss the document. Theusers therefore often switch between applications to view the documentand comment on the document, which is inconvenient to the users. Inparticular, such application switching is challenging on a mobile devicewith limited display area, which often lack space to simultaneouslydisplay both a document and a communication application.

SUMMARY

A computing device provides a convenient and easy-to-use interface forcreating, modifying, and viewing annotations associated with electroniccontent. The annotation methods provided by the computing device allowusers to manage annotations associated with any of a variety of types ofelectronic content, such as images, multipage documents, or videos.

The computing device displays the electronic content, which isassociated with a plurality of annotations each corresponding to aportion of the content (such as a spatial region, a spatial region at aspecified time, or a spatial region on a specified page). The computingdevice also displays a first annotation, which includes one or morecomments received from users and which is associated with a firstportion of the electronic content. While displaying the firstannotation, an input to display a second annotation is received. Thesecond annotation is associated with a second portion of the electroniccontent, and includes one or more comments associated with the secondportion. In response to receiving the input, the computing devicedisplays the second portion of the electronic content and the one ormore comments associated with the second portion.

The features and advantages described in this summary and the followingdetailed description are not all-inclusive. Many additional features andadvantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in viewof the drawings, specification, and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system environment for annotatingelectronic content, according to one embodiment.

FIGS. 2A-2D illustrate a process performed at the client device forcreating an annotation associated with electronic content, according toone embodiment.

FIGS. 3A-3D illustrate a process performed at the client device forreplying to an annotation associated with electronic content, accordingto one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process for displaying annotationsassociated with electronic content, according to one embodiment.

FIGS. 5A-5D illustrate a process performed at the client device fordisplaying annotations associated with electronic content, according toone embodiment.

FIGS. 6A-6F illustrate a process performed at the client device fordisplaying annotations associated with a multipage document, accordingto one embodiment.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present disclosure forpurposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the disclosure described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system environment 100 for annotatingdocuments, according to one embodiment. In one embodiment, theenvironment 100 includes one or more client devices 110 and a contentserver 120 communicating with the client devices 110 over a network 115.

The client device 110 displays electronic content and annotationsassociated with the content to a user. The client device 110 may displayand facilitate user annotations of any of a variety of types ofelectronic content, including documents such as images, slide decks, orPDFs, as well as video or audio files. The client device 110 may be anyuser computing device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, atablet, or a mobile phone. The client device 110 includes one or moreinput devices for receiving inputs from a user, such as a touchscreendisplay or a mouse and keyboard. In one embodiment, the client device110 executes an application allowing a user of the client device 110 tointeract with electronic content. For example, the client device 110executes a browser application or a native application that interactswith the content server 120 to display content stored at the contentserver 120 to a user of the client device 110.

The client device 110 enables users to annotate the content and viewannotations associated with the content. As described below with respectto FIGS. 2A-6F, the client device 110 integrates annotationfunctionality into a content viewer. By providing content viewing andannotation within a single interface, the client device 110 enablesusers to easily annotate electronic content without, for example,switching between applications on the client device 110. As used herein,an “annotation” is a set of one or more comments from users of theclient devices 110 that is associated with a specified portion ofcontent. Each comment includes a user response to the specified portionof content, and may include text, images, links, or the like. Whencreating an annotation, a user of the client device 110 specifies theportion of the content with which to associate the annotation. Thespecified portion may be a spatial area of the content (e.g., a portionof an image), a temporal segment of the content (e.g., a segment of anaudio file), a page of the content, both a spatial and temporal portionof the content (e.g., an area within one or more frames of a video),and/or another portion of the content. User comments added to thecontent are linked to the specified portion. In one embodiment, userscan reply to an annotation in the electronic content, creating a commentchain associated with the specified portion of the content andconfigured for display along with the electronic content.

The client device 110 communicates annotations created by users to thecontent server 120, which may display the content and annotations tousers of other client devices 110. Thus, for example, the client device110 enables a user to comment on a specified portion of a document andshare the comment with other users via the content server 120. Theclient devices 110 used by the other users display the comment to theother users and indicate the portion of the document with which thecomment is associated.

In one embodiment, the types of actions a user may take on a clientdevice 110 depend on the configuration of the client device 110. Forexample, a mobile device may allow a user to view content andannotations, create new annotations, and add comments to theannotations, but may not allow the user to modify the portion of thecontent with which an annotation is associated. A larger computingdevice (e.g., a desktop or laptop computer) may allow the user to alsomodify the annotation.

The content server 120 facilitates sharing of electronic content andassociated annotations between the client devices 110. The contentserver 120 may be any content storage device or system, such as a filehosting service, a document management system, or an email server. Usersof the client devices 110 may share electronic content and associatedannotations using the content server 120. In one embodiment, the contentserver 120 stores the electronic content and any annotations associatedwith the content, and users access the content by directly accessing thecontent server 120. For example, a user may share a document withanother user by uploading the document to the content server 120 andsending the other user a link to the document's location at the server120. Any users who have the link to the document may access the documentvia the content server 120 to view the content of the document and anyassociated annotations, as well as to create or modify annotationsassociated with the content. In another embodiment, electronic contentand its associated annotations are stored at client devices 110, and thecontent server 120 synchronizes the content by pushing changes made to acontent item at a first client device 110 (such as the creation of a newannotation) to one or more other client devices 110 storing the contentitem. In yet another embodiment, the content server 120 storesannotations associated with electronic content stored at client devices110, and synchronizes the annotations with the electronic content at thedevices 110.

The content server 120 may encrypt the content or otherwise controlaccess to the content by unauthorized users. For example, the contentserver 120 may require a user to provide login credentials to access aparticular document or set of documents the user has been authorized toaccess. In one embodiment, users may be provided with different levelsof access. For example, some users may be given both read and writeaccess to a content item, permitting the user to view the content itemand any associated annotations, edit the content item, and annotate thecontent item. Other users may be given annotation-only permissions for acontent item, allowing the user to add annotations or comments to thecontent item but not allowing the user to modify the content itemitself.

The client devices 110 and content server 120 are configured tocommunicate via the network 115, which may comprise any combination oflocal area and/or wide area networks, using both wired and/or wirelesscommunication systems. In one embodiment, the network 115 uses standardcommunications technologies and/or protocols. For example, the network115 includes communication links using technologies such as Ethernet,802.11, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), 3G, 4G,code division multiple access (CDMA), digital subscriber line (DSL),etc. Examples of networking protocols used for communicating via thenetwork 115 include multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), transmissioncontrol protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), hypertext transportprotocol (HTTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), and file transferprotocol (FTP). Data exchanged over the network 115 may be representedusing any suitable format, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) orextensible markup language (XML). In some embodiments, all or some ofthe communication links of the network 115 may be encrypted using anysuitable technique or techniques.

FIGS. 2A-2D illustrate a process performed at the client device 110 forcreating an annotation associated with electronic content, according toone embodiment. In the example of FIGS. 2A-2D, the process is describedwith respect to an image 200 as an example type of electronic content.However, other content types may be annotated by processes similar tothose described herein. As shown in FIG. 2A, the client device 110displays the image 200. While the image 200 is displayed, a user input205 is received to create an annotation associated with the image. Forexample, FIG. 2A illustrates a touch input (e.g., a press-and-holdinput) received at a touchscreen display of the client device 110 as theinput 205 to create an annotation, although the input may alternativelybe received by other input devices of the client device 110 (such as amouse).

In one embodiment, the user input 205 indicates a region of the image200 with which to associate the annotation. In response to the input205, the client device 110 displays a text entry box 210 and a selectionbox 215, as shown in FIG. 2B. The user can enter text, such ascommentary on the image 200, into the text entry box 210 as a commentassociated with the annotation. The selection box 215 defines a regionof the image 200 with which the user desires to associate theannotation. In one embodiment, the user can change the dimensions of theselection box 215, increase or decrease a zoom level of the image 200,and/or move the position of the selection box 215 or the image 200 onthe display of the client device 110 to change the region of the image200 that will be associated with the annotation. Although FIG. 2Billustrates the selection box 215 having a rectangular shape, theselection box 215 may be any of a variety of other shapes such as acircle, a triangle, or a freeform polygon.

FIG. 2C illustrates text entered by the user into the text entry box210. When the user confirms creation of the annotation (by, for example,selecting the check mark 218), the client device 110 creates anannotation using the text entered by the user and associates theannotation with the portion of the document identified by the selectionbox 215. The annotation created by the client device 110 is shown inFIG. 2D. The client device 110 sends the text to the content server 120,which stores the text and a location of the selection box 215 within theimage 200 as an annotation of the image 200.

FIGS. 3A-3D illustrate a process performed at the client device 110 foradding a comment to an existing annotation associated with electroniccontent, according to one embodiment. FIG. 3A illustrates an annotation305 associated with the image 200. The annotation 305 includes a commentchain 310, comprising one or more comments provided by users of theclient devices 110. A user input 315 to add a comment to the commentchain associated with the annotation 305 is received. For example, theclient device 110 receives a touch input at an “add a comment” button.In response to the input 315, the client device 110 displays a textentry box 320, as shown in FIG. 3B, for receiving the comment from theuser of the client device 110. FIG. 3C illustrates text entered by theuser into the text entry box 320. When the user confirms the comment(by, for example, selecting the check mark 318), the client device 110associates the comment with the annotation 305. FIG. 3D illustrates thecomment added to the comment chain 310 associated with the annotation305. Thus, a user of the client device 110 can reply directly to acomment associated with the image 200.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process 400 for displayingannotations associated with electronic content, according to oneembodiment. In one embodiment, the process 400 shown in FIG. 4 isperformed by a client device 110. The process 400 may include different,additional, or fewer steps, and the steps may be performed in differentorders. FIG. 4 is described with respect to the user interfaces shown inFIGS. 5A-5D.

Referring to FIG. 4, the client device 110 displays 402 electroniccontent associated with a plurality of annotations. Each annotationcorresponds to a respective portion of the electronic content. Dependingon the format of the electronic content, the annotation may correspondto a spatial region within the content, a spatial region within thecontent at a particular time, or a spatial region on a particular pageof the content. FIG. 5A illustrates an image 500, as example electroniccontent, displayed by the client device 110. In one embodiment, theclient device 110 also displays an annotation bar 505 indicating anumber of annotations associated with the image 500. The client device110 may indicate the annotations associated with the image 500 in avariety of other manners, such as displaying numbered or letteredidentifiers of the annotations within the image 500. The annotation bar505 may also be displayed at a different location on the display thanshown in FIG. 5A.

The client device 110 displays 404 a first annotation, which includesone or more comments associated with a first portion of the electroniccontent. To display an annotation associated with the image 500, a usermay provide an input at the annotation bar 505 shown in FIG. 5A. Forexample, the user taps at the annotation bar 505 or swipes theannotation bar 505 upwards on the display of the client device 110. Asshown in FIG. 5B, the client device 110 in one embodiment displays oneor more comments 512 corresponding to a first annotation in a firstregion 510 of the display, and displays a portion of the image 500 withwhich the first annotation is associated in a second region 520 of thedisplay. The first region 510 of the display may be scrollable todisplay additional comments 512 associated with the first annotation.

In one embodiment, the client device 110 displays the electronic contentat a zoom level such that the first portion is displayed with a borderdefining a distance between at least one side of the first portion andan edge of the display of the client device 110. The border may be afixed size (e.g., 100 pixels), a fixed portion of the display areadisplaying the first portion (e.g., 10%), or dynamically determinedbased on the size and shape of the first portion. For example, as shownin FIG. 5B, the image 500 displayed in the second region 520 of thedisplay such that the spatial region 522 associated with the firstannotation is displayed, as well as a border 524 specifying a distancebetween a side of the spatial region 522 and an edge of the display. Inanother embodiment, the client device 110 displays the electroniccontent at a specified zoom level within the second region 520 of thedisplay, regardless of the size of the first portion of the electroniccontent associated with the first annotation.

The client device 110 receives 406 an input to display a secondannotation associated with the electronic content. Like the firstannotation, the second annotation includes one or more comments and isassociated with a second portion of the electronic content. FIG. 5Cillustrates an example user input 530 received 406 by the client device110 to navigate to a second annotation associated with the image 500. Inthe example of FIG. 5C, the user input 530 is a swipe gesture receivedin the first region 510 of the display. In other embodiments, a user maynavigate to a second annotation by repositioning the image within thesecond region 520 of the display to the location associated with thesecond annotation, selecting the second annotation from a menu 532,selecting an arrow key of the client device 110 or an arrow buttondisplayed by the client device 110, or providing any of a variety ofother types of input.

In response to the user input 530, the client device 110 displays 408the second portion of the electronic content and the one or morecomments associated with the second annotation. FIG. 5D illustratesexample comments 542 associated with a second annotation that aredisplayed in the first region 510 of the display, and a portion of theimage 500 with which the second annotation is associated displayed inthe second region 520 of the display. The portion of the image displayedin the second region 520 of the display includes the second portion 544with which the second annotation is associated. In one embodiment, theclient device 110 automatically pans and/or zooms the electronic contentto display the second portion of the content associated with the secondannotation, without a manual input from the user to pan or zoom theimage. When transitioning to the second annotation, the client device110 may pan or zoom the electronic content until the second portion ofthe content is displayed at a predetermined position within the firstregion 510 of the display. For example, as shown in FIG. 5D, the secondportion 544 is displayed with the border 524 defining a distance betweena right side of the second portion 544 and a right edge of the display.The client device 110 may additionally or alternatively display thesecond portion 544 with borders on other sides, or may display theelectronic content at a predetermined zoom level regardless of the sizeof the second portion 544.

FIGS. 6A-6E illustrate an example of the process 400 when the electroniccontent is a multipage document and annotations are associated withdifferent pages of the document.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the client device 110 displays a first annotationassociated with a first portion 602 of the document. In the example ofFIG. 6A, the first portion 602 is a portion of page 1 of the document.The first annotation includes at least one comment 604, which in oneembodiment is displayed in the first region 510 of the display while theportion 602 of the document is displayed in the second region 520.

When transitioning from the first annotation to a second annotation on adifferent page (e.g., in response to a user swipe gesture received atthe first region 510 of the display), the client device 110 shows ananimation including content of the document between the portionassociated with the first annotation and the portion associated with thesecond annotation. In one embodiment, as shown for example in FIGS.6B-6E, the animation zooms out from the first portion of the documentuntil one or more pages are displayed, scrolls past representations ofpages of the document between the first and second annotations, andzooms into the portion of the document associated with the secondannotation.

FIG. 6B illustrates an example of the client device 110 zooming out fromthe portion 602 of the document associated with the first annotation,and FIG. 6C illustrates the display zoomed out to show a representation610 of the entire first page of the document. Although FIG. 6C shows anexample in which the client device 110 zooms out the displayed portionof the document until one document page is shown in its entirety, thezoom level of document pages during the transition to the secondannotation may be greater or lesser than shown in FIG. 6C. For example,the client device 110 may zoom out until multiple pages are displayed.

FIG. 6D illustrates the client device 110 scrolling past representations615 of pages of the document between the first page and page 18, wherethe second annotation is located. In one embodiment, the client device110 displays the intervening pages if the pages are cached at the clientdevice 110 or retrieved quickly enough from the content server 120 todisplay during the annotation. If the pages are not locally cached andthe network connection between the client device 110 and the server 120is slower, the client device 110 may instead display blank page outlinesof the intervening pages or other representations of the pages.

FIG. 6E illustrates the client device 110 beginning to zoom in on asecond portion 622 of the document with which the second annotation isassociated, and FIG. 6F illustrates the display zoomed in on the secondportion 622. In one embodiment, the client device 110 zooms in on theportion 622 until it is displayed at a specified zoom level. In anotherembodiment, the client device 110 zooms in until the portion 622 isdisplayed with a border defining a distance between at least one side ofthe portion 622 and an edge of the display. While the portion 622 of thedocument is displayed (e.g., in the second region 520 of the display),the client device 110 also displays the one or more comments 624associated with the second annotation.

The processes described with respect to FIG. 4 and illustrated in FIGS.5A-6E enable a user to easily view and create annotations associatedwith electronic content. Because a communication channel is integratedinto a content viewer, the user of the client device 110 does not needto switch between applications to view the content and add comments tothe content. This integration of a communication channel into a contentviewer is particularly advantageous when the client device 110 is amobile device with a relatively small display area (e.g., a mobilephone), since switching between applications on a mobile devicesignificantly increases the cognitive burden to the user and the amountof time the user would need to spend to annotate the content. Moreover,by linking an annotation to a specified portion of the content andshowing the specified portion while displaying the annotation, theclient device 110 enables a user to create annotations that specificallyidentify the portion of the content of interest to the user. Theseannotations enable the user to more clearly communicate comments on theelectronic content with other users, improving user workflow whencollaborating on documents.

CONCLUSION

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the disclosure has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed.Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovedisclosure.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of thedisclosure in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the disclosure may also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a tangible computer readable storage medium or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and coupled to acomputer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systems referred to inthe specification may include a single processor or may be architecturesemploying multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the disclosure may also relate to a computer data signalembodied in a carrier wave, where the computer data signal includes anyembodiment of a computer program product or other data combinationdescribed herein. The computer data signal is a product that ispresented in a tangible medium or carrier wave and modulated orotherwise encoded in the carrier wave, which is tangible, andtransmitted according to any suitable transmission method.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the disclosure be limited notby this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on anapplication based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodimentsof the disclosure is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, ofthe scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: interacting with a contentserver to display electronic content at a computing device, theelectronic content associated with a plurality of annotations, eachannotation specifying a respective portion of the electronic content;while displaying the electronic content, receiving an annotation inputfor a first annotation based on user interaction with a user interfaceof the computing device, the annotation input including a single userinput selection indicating a plurality of boundary points defining afirst region of an image; in response to receiving the single user inputselection, displaying a text entry box substantially simultaneously withdisplaying the first region of the image, the text entry box configuredto receive a first comment; receiving the first comment via the textentry box; sending the first annotation to the content server;displaying the first annotation at the computing device, the firstannotation including the first comment associated with the first regionof the image, wherein displaying the first annotation comprisessimultaneously displaying the first region of the image and the firstcomment with the first region of the image visually designated by aborder; while displaying the first annotation, receiving a second inputto display a second annotation associated with a second portion of theelectronic content, the second annotation including one or more commentsassociated with the second portion, the second portion representing asecond spatial segment of the electronic content; and responsive toreceiving the second input, displaying the second portion of theelectronic content and the one or more comments associated with thesecond portion at the computing device.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein displaying the first annotation comprises: generating a displayincluding a first region of the display and a second region of thedisplay; displaying the first comment in the first region of thedisplay; and displaying the first region of the image in the secondregion of the display.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the secondinput to display the second annotation comprises a swipe gesturereceived at the first region of the display.
 4. The method of claim 2,wherein the first region of the display is scrollable to displayadditional comments of the first annotation.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein displaying the first annotation comprises: displaying theelectronic content at a zoom level such that the first region of theimage is displayed with the border defining a distance between at leastone side of the first region of the image and an edge of a displayscreen of the computing device.
 6. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising: responsive to receiving the second input to display thesecond annotation, panning and zooming the electronic content until asecond region of the image is displayed with a second border defining adistance between at least one side of the second region of the image andthe edge of the display screen.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereindisplaying the first annotation comprises displaying a box overlaid onthe electronic content and identifying the first region of the image. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a third input tocreate a new annotation associated with the electronic content;displaying an adjustable selection box around a third portion of theelectronic content; receiving a third comment entered by a user; andassociating the third comment with the third portion of the electroniccontent.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, while displayingthe first annotation: receiving a fourth comment from a user of thecomputing device; and adding the received fourth comment to a commentchain.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the single user inputselection corresponds to a selection box, wherein the selection box isone of: a freeform shape or a non-freeform shape.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: navigating to the second annotation by oneof: repositioning the electronic content to a location associated withthe second annotation, selecting the second annotation from a menu, andselecting an arrow key of the computing device or an arrow button on anelectronic display of the computing device.
 12. The method of claim 1,further comprising: pushing from the content server to the computingdevice a new annotation to the electronic content, wherein the firstannotation and the new annotation are initially input by differentusers.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second portion of theelectronic content is a second region of the image.
 14. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing executable computer programinstructions that are executable by a processor to: interact with acontent server to display electronic content, the electronic contentassociated with a plurality of annotations each specifying a respectiveportion of the electronic content; while displaying the electroniccontent, receive an annotation input for a first annotation based onuser interaction with a user interface of a computing device, theannotation input including a single user input selection indicating aplurality of boundary points defining a first region of an image; inresponse to receiving the single user input selection, display a textentry box substantially simultaneously with displaying the first regionof the image, the text entry box configured to receive a first comment;receive the first comment via the text entry box; send the firstannotation to the content server; display the first annotation, thefirst annotation including the first comment associated with the firstregion of the image, wherein displaying the first annotation comprisessimultaneously displaying the first region of the image and the firstcomment with the first region of the image visually designated by aborder; while displaying the first annotation, receive a second input todisplay a second annotation associated with a second portion of theelectronic content, the second annotation including one or more commentsassociated with the second portion, the second portion representing aspatial segment of the electronic content; and responsive to receivingthe second input, display the second portion of the electronic contentand the one or more comments associated with the second portion.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein theinstructions for displaying the first annotation comprise instructionsthat are executable by the processor to: generate a display including afirst region of the display and a second region of the display; displaythe first comment in the first region of the display; and display thefirst region of the image in the second region of the display.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thesecond input to display the second annotation comprises a swipe gesturereceived at the first region of the display.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first regionof the display is scrollable to display additional comments of the firstannotation.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 14, wherein the instructions for displaying the first annotationcomprise instructions that are executable by the processor to: displaythe electronic content at a zoom level such that the first region of theimage is displayed with the border defining a distance between at leastone side of the first region of the image and an edge of a displayscreen.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim18, further comprising instructions that are executable by the processorto: responsive to receiving the second input to display the secondannotation, pan and zoom the electronic content until the second portionis displayed with a second border defining a distance between at leastone side of the second portion and the edge of the display screen. 20.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, whereinthe instructions for displaying the first annotation compriseinstructions that are executable by the processor to display a boxoverlaid on the electronic content and identifying the first region ofthe image.
 21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 14, further comprising instructions that are executable by theprocessor to: receive a third input to create a new annotationassociated with the electronic content; display an adjustable selectionbox around a third portion of the electronic content; receive a thirdcomment entered by a user; and associate the third comment with thethird portion of the electronic content.
 22. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprisinginstructions that are executable by the processor to, while displayingthe first annotation: receive a fourth comment from a user; and add thereceived fourth comment to a comment chain.
 23. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein: the firstannotation is displayed at a first computing device; the second input todisplay the second annotation is received from a second computingdevice; and the second portion of the electronic content is displayed atthe second computing device.